The 76ers coach has said it in the past, and that’s likely why he didn’t think twice about asking each of his starters Saturday night to play at least 30 minutes. On the tail end of a two-game, two-night roadtrip, the Sixers’ starters didn’t have enough left in the tank late as the Chicago Bulls squeaked out a 93-88 win at United Center.

Thad Young hit a layup with 18 seconds to go, cutting the Bulls’ lead to 90-88. A miscommunication, however, led to the Sixers fouling the Bulls’ Rip Hamilton instead of someone prone to missing free throws. When Hamilton actually missed one, he pulled down his miss, made the subsequent pair of freebies and iced the game.

“(Bulls center) Joakim (Noah), I think he mushed Evan (Turner) under the basket,” Young said. “It was a pinch. He’s a contender, a big guy who’s going to battle and battle. I’ll call it my fault. Coach said it was his fault. I’ll call it my fault. I was the only big in the game. I should’ve mushed him away from the basket and let Evan or Dorell (Wight) go for the rebound.”

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“It was sort of in the trick bag,” Collins said. “I didn’t have any timeouts and I kept a small lineup on the floor because we had to make a play. I should’ve had Thad and Evan pinching on Noah. Evan got caught over there.”

The Sixers simply lacked the muscle required to contend with Chicago on the glass, with the Bulls outrebounding them, 50-37. Between Noah, Luol Deng and Carlos Boozer, Chicago took advantage of the mismatch in the middle.

It didn’t bode well for the Sixers when Lavoy Allen was forced to check out of the game midway through the third quarter after picking up his fourth personal foul. That meant Sixers coach Doug Collins had to trust Spencer Hawes, who’s been wildly inconsistent, with holding down the fort until Allen returned.

Compounding matters for the Sixers was a lack of bench depth. Without Nick Young, who missed the game with a hyperextended toe, Collins’ hands were tied. He went to his reserves for only 49 of a possible 240 minutes. In a back-to-back scenario, that put way too much strain on his starters.

“I thought we played hard,” Collins said. “I thought our guys did as much as we could to win the game. A couple possessions here or there, we would have had a chance to win the game. If we play hard like that, we’ll find ways to scratch out some games.”

One questionable play, which could’ve made the difference for the Sixers, came when Holiday wasn’t deemed to be in continuation of a layup attempt trailing, 83-79, with 2:14 to play. He made the bucket, but it was wiped away as the foul was ruled to have occurred on the floor instead of in rhythm. The Bulls got a huge dunk at the other end of the floor from Taj Gibson, and the Sixers couldn’t close the gap.

As far as shooting is concerned, the Sixers picked up where they left off a night earlier in Charlotte. They made five of their first six looks from the floor, streaking to a 13-6 lead in the opening minutes of the game. It ended up being their largest lead of the first half.

The Sixers were knocked back to reality by a lengthy Chicago run, an 8-0 sprint with buckets on four consecutive possessions to take a lead into the second quarter. The Bulls eventually stretched that to a 14-2 spurt, turning what had been a Sixers’ 17-13 lead into a 27-19 deficit.

Maalik Wayns, with a pair of free throws, ended that stretch, but the Sixers weren’t able to regain the lead before halftime.

Turner converted a difficult layup in the lane — after losing the ball, regaining it, getting clobbered by Noah then putting the finishing touches on it — and the Sixers were able to draw even. The teams went into the break at 41-all.

The Bulls owned intermission advantages in rebounding (23-18) and shooting (47 percent to the Sixers’ 42), which kept it closer than it probably should’ve been. Conversely, though, the Sixers finished the first half by clanging all but 12 of 34 attempts. It was an ugly way to finish what had been a pretty start.

In the third, the Sixers pulled away for a five-point lead — their largest since their seven-pointer to open the contest — with the help of Thad Young and Jason Richardson.

Young put down a 20-footer and a fastbreak layup on successive trips down the floor, and Richardson completed a 3-point play, after drawing a foul from Hamilton. That put the Sixers up, 55-50, with six minutes to go in the third quarter.

But the Bulls scored 17 of the next 26 points, Noah making a jumper from the corner then assisting on another bucket to put Chicago up, 67-64, heading into the fourth.

NOTE: Hamilton, a Coatesville native, sprained his left foot late in the third quarter and required help off the floor. He returned in the fourth quarter.